Fellow blogger Kelly recently did this post – simply taking a photo every hour to illustrate an entire day – and I loved the concept! What a fun way to document a random Sunday. It’s interesting what taking photos every hour shows – and what it leaves out.

7:30 AM –

Normally, Sundays are my lie-in day, but Kristien wasn’t feeling great, so I got up with Henry. At 7:30 AM, Henry was eating blueberries while I leaned up against his dresser. I wasn’t sitting in the chair because he doesn’t let anyone sit in it anymore (he starts to frantically scream, “TOO BIG! TOO BIG” when you sit down. Gee, thanks, Henry!).

8:30 AM –

Breakfast time! I have my staple of fruit, eggs with greens, and toast.

9:30 AM –

I write out a birthday card and a sympathy card while standing at the kitchen island. Kristien is up and making himself a cup of tea. Henry is watching Frozen on my iPhone – he loves Let It Go and is obsessed with Elsa building a castle of ice.

10:30 AM –

I’m running! I am doing a long run by myself for the first time in weeks – the Husband isn’t up to it today. That’s okay because I really want to run a ‘race pace’ to see how fast I should do the Half Marathon at. I try to take minimal walking breaks.

11:30 AM –

I’m still running. I took the above screen shot at noon, which is when I finished my run. I did 10 miles in 1:42. Feeling pretty good about it! I’m excited for the race because the course is Uptown and goes right by our old apartment and the Husband’s clinic, but I’m worried, too, because there are lots of hills and one HUGE hill at Mile 11.5 – 13.1 We shall see how it goes – I bet a lot of it just depends on how I feel on race day.

12:30 PM –

The three of us are at Lowe’s. I showered and grabbed a smoothie before heading out – but my hair is soaking wet! Good thing it isn’t cold out. At Lowe’s, I buy new cabinet handles, a new air vent for the bathroom, and new shades for the light fixture in the powder room.

1:30 PM –

We are in full-out toddler meltdown mode, partly because Henry is sleepy and hungry, but mostly because while I was making his lunch, I let him watch an actual scene from Frozen (instead of a song). I didn’t preview the scene beforehand (“It’s Disney, how bad can it be?”) and it turns out that the scene concludes with a giant frozen chandelier being almost dropped on Princess Elsa’s head during a huge battle scene. Henry is FREAKING out because he thought Elsa was hurt. I feel SO bad. It takes the Husband rocking him like a newborn while I spoonfeed eggs and potatoes into his mouth to calm him down. Then he goes to sleep.

2:30 PM –

I try to finish painting the guest bathroom – I only have half the ceiling to go!

Henry and I go grocery shopping at Aldi’s. I try out a new grocery list technique, which works really well. More on this tomorrow!

6:30 PM –

We head over to Trader Joe’s for Grocery Store #2. It takes us a while to get into the store because there are so many airplanes overhead! One of the best parts of being a toddler momma is how it’s reminded me to SLOW DOWN and stop rushing. Taking 15 minutes to get into a grocery store would’ve made me pull my hair out two years ago. I realize now how fun (and fleeting) these moments are…

7:30 PM –

Henry is eating dinner with Kristien. I install one of the new light shades in the bathroom to see if I like it. I do! I decide that it’s absolutely impossible to photograph anything in this tiny space. The paint color doesn’t even look close to right (it’s really a creamy white/pink)! Oh well.

8:30 PM –

Henry is in bed, and we are on the couch, watching TV and reading Time magazine. I just finished this amazing dinner – a huge salad and a big pile of cheesy nachos. I would’ve given it two thumbs up but one hand was busy taking pictures.

9:30 PM –

We’re watching The Walking Dead. I haven’t been too wild about this show recently (sooo slow – sooo repetitive) but the new plotlines are giving me hope.

10:30 PM –

It’s dark because I’m in bed and fast asleep! Today seemed to be incredibly grueling, at least physically. I was ready to drop by the time that I crawled into bed.

So fun! I love this concept too!! (thanks for the shout out) And I totally agree that it is pretty interesting what gets left out when you can only use one photo per hour. Random question, but when you and the hubs both do long rung what does Henry do? Does he go too in the stroller or does someone come over and watch him?

I also second the slowing down feeling…even though Trey is only 4 months (and I am sure things will get even slower when he’s a toddler) but everything takes me twice as long. At first this was very frustrating but now I feel like I am enjoying life a little more since I am actually appreciating it and not rushing through it.

CaitlinFebruary 24, 2014, 7:56 am

My Dad has been babysitting when we do our long runs. I think if it was warmer out, I would try to convince him to stay in the stroller for a while, but it’s too cold!!!

MeganFebruary 24, 2014, 12:49 pm

When my daughter was younger it was easy to take her on longer runs (but the most I’d do with her was 6 miles because I don’t like pushing the stroller more than that!), but now that she is a vocal 3.5 year old- I’m lucky to get 2 miles in before she is trying to get out. No amount of snacks, toys or bribes will keep her down. 🙂 This started when she was around 2.

Love Frozen!!! Huge fan of the movie but I could totally see how that scene could scare him! Sounds like a packed Sunday! Ours was packed too with running, shopping and some home fixings.

CristinaFebruary 24, 2014, 9:01 am

I know Ive said it a bunch of times, but i really, really love your posts! Not only is it refreshing and super encouraging to read about another “real” runner who takes things a day at a time, who takes care, who has healthy and GREAT advice, I also love the fact that you and I live in the same city 🙂 makes me feel more connected to your posts. I keep reading to my husband snipets of your posts, he enjoys them too! good job on 10 miles, I had to do 13 on sat but at mile 11, I had a knot in my IT from last weekends 20 miler that I never rested and massaged/foam rolled out soo I could barely walk to my car after mile 11. Feeling dissapointed until I try to remind myself to have more grace with myself, 11 miles is a big deal! 🙂
Cant wait to read about your new grocery list method, I loved the aldi post and reading some of the comments was fun too!
Have a great week!

CaitlinFebruary 24, 2014, 1:36 pm

You are so sweet. Thank you so much!!! Are you doing a local marathon?

This was such a fun post! I think I will do a picture every hour today and post tomorrow! I took the girl I nanny to see Frozen when it first came out and we both fell in LOVE with it. The first thing she said when we walked out was, “When is Frozen 2 coming out?”

I love this post idea 🙂 I agree that the picture of Henry looking at airplanes is adorable!

ChristinaFebruary 24, 2014, 10:04 am

About Frozen- I heard a story on NPR when it first came out about how there was some controversy about why it was PG instead of G. The people defending the PG rating said it was due to almost-violence- I guess they were right!

ReenieFebruary 24, 2014, 10:36 am

“TOO BIG! TOO BIG” ~ that cracked me up!! Love the photos of Henry 🙂

MaryFebruary 24, 2014, 10:39 am

Love this post!

Maybe Henry means that HE’S too big to be rocked anymore? Like if you sit in the chair he assumes you want to rock him? Toddlers are so funny.

You were a busy girl for Sunday! We had a good Sunday over here too… I did lots of chores to get ready for our families to come into town for Aiden’s 1st birthday this week. I didn’t get a workout in, but I still feel like I worked out from all the chores!

LauraFebruary 24, 2014, 11:15 am

Nice post. I now call it the Boring Dead when my bf and I watch it on Sunday/Monday.

I kind of like this idea! I have a friend who takes a family picture every week and then has 52 family pictures at the end of the year (she’s a pro photographer though, so she’s got way more talent than I would!). This is her 2nd year doing it. It’s really cool to document her kids’ growth!

I loooooove Frozen. My 3 year old is watching song clips from it right now so I can sit down and finish my morning coffee (at 11:40am…). I don’t buy many, if any, movies on DVD but we will be buying this one. Even my 8.5 year old son thinks it’s awesome! Princesses in it for the girly girls and funny reindeer, cool guys and abominable (sp?) snowmen for the boys!

Is that all you ate over the course of a long run day? I hope you ate more and just didn’t document then. I eat more than that on my non-active days!

CaitlinFebruary 24, 2014, 1:35 pm

I ate way more! Just not at hour intervals 🙂

CFebruary 24, 2014, 1:36 pm

Fun to see snapshots throughout the day!
I’m a long time reader and enjoy checking in to your blog. I’m curious though, I thought you were going to step back from posting daily? Your day seemed pretty packed already without the stress of a blog post per day as an additional deadline. Isn’t that why you were slowing down in the first place? As a reader and a mother, I completely understood when you announced that you’d be posting less frequently, so now I’m just a bit confused.

CaitlinFebruary 24, 2014, 1:42 pm

Taking the break from multiple posts every single day SO good for me – when I dropped down to like 3 posts a week. It really allowed me to recoop and refocus. But truthfully, I missed daily blogging SO much. It’s hard to walk away from something you’ve done for 5 years 🙂 Nearly 6!! I think I was also at a rough spot with mothering at that point (because of stopping pumping). Things are just all around SO much better, and I feel a lot more organized and on top of stuff these days. And so happy. 🙂 I’ve found I can maintain a post a day, save for Saturdays, pretty well. It’s the perfect balance. 🙂 Thanks for reading for all this time. I really do appreciate it a lot.

Can I just add in that I thought life wouldn’t be the same if you stopped posting often. Literally I felt like I didn’t know what to do with myself LOL The first thing I do when I get to work in the morning is look for your posts. My heart sank every time I didn’t find a new post up. This has been my routine since I was in college and working part-time. Finding “See Bride Run” made me so excited, especially being a girl and watching your journey to becoming a wife, mother, etc. I’m so happy you’re back 🙂 It feels like you never really took a break anyway. The best part is you’re happy, and that’s really all that matters 🙂 xoxo

Technically Elsa is Queen by that point in the movie. 😛 I take it you haven’t seen the full movie yet, just parts and the songs everyone’s obsessed with?
Yeah, I can see how that would freak a toddler out. She doesn’t actually get hit, but I can see how he would think she would have been.
Don’t let him watch the part before that with the snow monster yet, either then, with that being his reaction to the chandelier! Might be a little intense for him at this point.

What a neat idea! I wanna do this so I can look back and see my day in photos in a few years! 🙂

CateFebruary 24, 2014, 5:25 pm

My gosh, woman, you are productive! I liked this idea for a post, and it’s inspired me to be a bit more productive. Don’t get me wrong, I love my downtime and will never let it go completely, but look how much you were able to accomplish! Perhaps just being aware of stopping every hour to assess what I am accomplishing would be a positive thing.

Oh man, I am such a Fan of Frozen, and I’m not even a little bit ashamed to admit it! 🙂

SandraFebruary 24, 2014, 8:04 pm

Dude, what is UP with The Walking Dead!? My husband is still into it, but I just watch to appease him. I feel like they’ve progressively made it more and more about how many disgusting zombies and severed heads they can show in one hour instead of actually developing a plot worth following.

I love this idea of the photo-an-hour. And congrats on your double digit run! I can’t wait to be able to do those regularly. Right now I’m up to maybe 3… but Tough Mudder in May is coming up faster and faster.

I so love your post because it taught me how to have a good time management so that I can enjoy my day. You also show me that everything is done at its right time if you know how to manage your schedule.

I’m not a Registered Dietitian (RD). For specific medical counseling, please contact a Registered Dietitian or your doctor. My blog posts are based on my own personal knowledge, experience, and opinions. This website's privacy policy is available here.